Tommy Tallarico Part 1

IncGamers caught up with another industry legend this week, music composer and co-founder of Video Games Live, Tommy Tallarico. In this first part of the interview, he tells us all about the phenomenal success of Video Games Live.

What’s the story behind Video Games Live? Why did you decide to bring video game music to a live audience?

I’ve been a video game composer for over 18 years and my partner in Video Games Live, Jack Wall, has been doing it for over 12 years. My goal in creating Video Games Live was that I wanted to prove to the world how culturally significant and artistic video games have become. I didn’t want to just put on a show for hardcore gamers, I wanted to do a show. Not necessarily even a concert, but a celebration of the video game industry and so the way we designed the show was with everyone in mind.

To describe Video Games Live quickly: it’s all the greatest video game music of all time played by a full symphony and choir onstage. What makes it really unique is that everything is completely synchronised – the music is synchronised with the big video screen and the rock n’ roll lighting and the stage show production and interactive crowd elements.  It’s all the power and emotion of a symphony orchestra combined with the energy and excitement of a rock concert mixed together with interactivity, cutting edge visuals, technology and the fun that video games provide.

You don’t have to know a thing about video games in order to come out to the show and be blown away and have a greater appreciation for video games in general and specifically game music. Most of the letters and emails we get after a performance are from non-gamers. Parallel to that, it’s also ushering in a whole new generation to come and appreciate a symphony which wasn’t our goal and plan from the beginning.

It’s having an effect all over the world which is great – we’ve played to sold out audiences in Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand and a seven thousand seat bull ring in Mexico. We’ve done three or four weeks at time down in Brazil and we’re on our way to Portugal this week. We played Spain, Scotland, Paris and London.

So, it’s a real world tour... 

Sure, and that’s the amazing thing. Think of it in terms of this: take a big band in the US, like the Dave Matthews band. They’re huge here but couldn’t necessarily be big in England. It’s interesting to see the effect that video game music has globally. It really is something when we can go to Brazil or Korea and people hum along because they know the songs.

Do you tailor your show to the different audiences?

Sure, we change the setlist depending on the countries. We’ve created over 50 segments for Video Games Live, but we can only play about 20 per night so we’re always changing the show. We’ve never played the same show twice, in fact. We’ve done over a hundred performances around the world and we’re always mixing it up and updating it. When we go back to a city – we’ve been to London, for example, three times now – every year it’s different. You’ve got to play Mario, your Zelda, Halo unless they’ll lynch you. But you can change it also, and change the way you play the songs.  

Thinking back to your first Video Games Live gig, did you have any idea that three years later you’d be embarking on these huge world tours?

It was always the goal to do this, so it didn’t surprise me as much as it put a smile on my face knowing that our dream had become a reality. I never doubted it, but it was a lot of hard work, especially trying to convince people that we’re not crazy. So, from that standpoint, to see it come to fruition is very satisfying.